This invention relates generally to filling valve arrangement for containers and more specifically it relates to a filling valve for carbonated beverages including a cylinder piston pressing unit operable for compressing a sealing element against the rim of a container.
Filling valves of this type are known from German publication Nos. 20 31 589 and 20 42 990. In this known filling valve the part which carries the seal element for the container is supported for vertical movement on the lower end of the valve and driven relative to the latter by a cylinder-piston arrangement. The movable part according to the choice of design, may be constituted by the piston or alternatively by the cylinder of the cylinder-piston unit. The cylinder communicates with a source of pressurized gas so that in the course of an initial pressurizing process prior to the start of the filling process the sealing element is pressed, by the action of the pressurized gas against the rim of the container whereby the compressing force in optimum manner being dependent on the sealing pressure. The effective surface of the piston is designed such as to adjust the desired magnitude of the compressing force.
The disadvantage of this known construction is the fact that the cylinder piston unit is arranged at the lower part of the sealing valve in the range of a liquid controlling valve. As a consequence, the design possibilities are substantially limited. For instance, in both constructions disclosed in the afore-mentioned publications, the discharge passage between the liquid control valve and the lower edge of the filling valve has to be designed relatively long thus impeding the optimum conduction of the liquid and, as far as the maintenance of the constant filling level is concerned, these prior art constructions are disadvantageous. Moreover, the construction parts of the liquid controlling valve have to be accommodated in a limited space resulting in further disadvantages which impair the quality as well as the speed of the filling process.